Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (inspirational books txt) 📕

large garlands she’d sourced through Juliette and looking back at the sketch on her planner - according to the drawing she wanted them to hang in a very certain way.

‘They can’t go straight? I know the answer will be no,’ he said smiling and scratching his head.

‘Nope, they have to drape like that - that's the whole look. Look here’s the idea online.’

‘Oh God no, not a picture online - where nothing has to really hold up in real life.’

‘You can do it Ben,’ she said, laughing, and stroking his arm.

‘It’s a big ask to get that weight to hang along that glass wall and stay up,’ he said, moving closer to the paned wall and inspecting it more closely.

‘I know but it has to look right, otherwise it’s not worth doing...’ Sallie replied as she started unwrapping the baubles.

‘I know, I know it’s all about the look, the feel, you don't need to reiterate that point. I think I’ve heard it a million times now.’ He winked and got out his measuring tape and drill. ‘So how many baubles will be on it? How much extra weight?’ He asked, looking very dubious.

‘Well not sure yet but it needs to be pretty packed to get it looking good - Juliette thinks the same too.’

‘I bet she does. Right, so that’s the oasis, the real greenery and the baubles and the lights...’ he trailed off doing the maths in his head.

An hour and a half later, and after much swearing under his breath and Sallie standing on a stepladder holding up bits of the garlands all three of them were tentatively in place, forming one long length behind the main table.

‘So, I can start weaving in the oasis?’ Sallie asked, looking at it doubtfully.

‘It’s now or never - we’ll soon find out if the whole lot falls to the floor!’

‘Don’t even joke, we’ve paid for a photographer so we don’t want anything to go wrong.’

‘No, look, I think it’ll be fine,’ he said as they both stood back looking at it.

Sallie walked over to the oasis she’d ordered through Felicity; it had been soaking overnight and she stood on the stepladder at one end and Ben at the other and they started to thread it through the imitation garland until they met in the middle. The plan was that the next day just before the shoot, they would top up the water and fill it with the greenery. Just before the wedding it would again be refreshed so it looked lovely for the photos.

They did the same with the wreaths - Ben fixed the hooks to the middle of the tall, arched windows and Sallie laced the oasis through and tied it to the back of the wreaths.

They spent ages on the Christmas tree - it was way too big for any of the regular Christmas tree holders and Sallie had realised when the tree itself had come through the door of the Orangery that keeping the thing upright would be an interesting conundrum.

‘There’s no way that bucket we thought would work - it’ll just topple over, even if it’s filled with stones and water.’ Ben said.

‘Yikes Ben, this is a major mess-up of mine, I can’t believe it - I just didn’t calculate that the base would be that big. We’ve simply got nothing that will keep the thing up!’ Sallie said with her hands on her hips as they both stood there looking at the tree which was leaning up against the table precariously.

‘Let’s go outside and have a look around the back where we put all that stuff when we were first clearing everything out.’

They put their coats, hats and boots on, braced the cold and walked around the back of the Orangery down towards the elderflower trees, looking through the neat piles of pots, falling apart wheelbarrows and old plant pots - nothing was big enough.

‘What about in the garage of the old shop - there’s still quite a lot of outdoor stuff in there,’ Sallie suggested and they walked back down the path, over the courtyard and into the garden of the cottage next to Juliette’s.

Ben pulled the door to the garage open and pushed it up and over. They walked in - it smelled damp, musty and old and Sallie started to walk towards the back, rummaging through all sorts of things.

‘Look back there - that might work. It looks like one of those old tin dolly planters.’

Ben clambered over an old chair, a broken lawnmower, a huge bag of compost and started to pull it out.

‘It’s perfect.’

Chapter 46

Juliette strode along the pavement, her long pale pink coat over a floaty, knee-length dress, thick cosy tights and boots. Maggie in a white hat with a fur pompom, pink wellingtons and puffball skirt chatted away as they walked along the laneway, turned right and down towards the back doors of the Orangery.

‘Ooh mummy, it’s so pretty from around this side, prettier than from my bedroom window.’ Maggie said, letting go of Juliette’s hand and running over to Sallie as she unloaded boxes from the back of the car.

‘Good morning Maggie, how are you today? Are you ready to help us with this Christmas decorating?’ Sallie said tapping Maggie gently on the top of her curls.

‘I’m so excited, we love Christmas don’t we mummy?’

‘We certainly do! It's a good job that we do with my little shop, since we get Christmas all year round in our house.’ Juliette replied, smiling at Sallie.

Maggie took off her little pink mittens, took her polka dot backpack straps off her shoulders and opened the zip and pulled a crocheted bauble out from the interior pocket of the bag.

‘Look! I made this for the tree.’ She held up the crocheted bauble to Sallie who took it and inspected it carefully.

‘Goodness Maggie, you’re so clever. Did you make this all on your own for our tree here?’

‘Mummy helped me with it - I glued it on the ball all by myself though.’

‘Right. Well,